Youth
by vandangeleo
Summary: Piper had always thought of Leo as a little brother, but this was taking it a bit too far. Or, the one where Leo is eight again and the rest of the Seven don't know what they're dealing with.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: Piper had always thought of Leo as a little brother, but this was taking it a bit too far. Or, the one where Leo is eight again and the rest of the Seven don't know what they're dealing with.**

**Notes: This is a new thing I've been wanting to write for a little while. I'm not sure how long it'll be, but you can comment things you want to add, if you want. Be patient with me, school is a bitch. Enjoy, I guess.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not fifty, nor a male, so obviously I don't own PJO.**

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><p>When they found him, he was completely still and silent. Which, Piper thinks, is probably why the search took so long.<p>

Leo doesn't do silent. The number of times someone (namely Piper or Jason) has walked in on him talking to himself when alone, or even when others were there, is high. It sort of disturbs her, how often one of her best friends mutters things to himself. She wonders if he'll ever grow out of the habit. The way things are going, probably not.

Leo doesn't do still. There have been few times that Piper has ever seen Leo be completely still, and she hasn't liked any of them. After Leo came back from Ogygia, when he told the rest of the crew about what happened to his mom and how, and a few times that Piper's stumbled upon him so exhausted that he's worked himself into a coma-like sleep.

It's weird to ever see Leo not fidgeting. Unnatural, one might say.

There are a few other things that Piper knows Leo doesn't do. Eating dry cereal, not talking, sleeping regularly, not being able to tinker for long periods of time. The list of quirks that the boy had was extensive.

And being eight. Piper was pretty sure that Leo wasn't eight.

But that contradicted the fact that there was a tiny Latino sat on the desk in front of her.

He stared at her blankly, almost as if she weren't there. Piper prayed to the Gods that this wasn't actually Leo, because it was unnerving her. A child should be happy and just a little bit excited about everything, not staring with a dead look in his eye. Especially if that child was Leo, the bouncing, happy teen. There was no way Piper could see this child as being Leo, and it was probably impossible to be sixteen and suddenly lose half of your years anyways.

Who was he? A Hephaestus camper at the least.

But still, better safe than sorry... "Leo?" She whispered, not sure why it seemed appropriate but doing it anyways.

The only response she got from the kid was his eyes focusing on her for a split second before returning to the spot over her shoulder, as if someone was standing there. She turned her head to look, but saw nothing. Shaking it off and figuring that that was all she was going to get, she took a step forward, studying him closer.

The resemblance to the Leo she knew was uncanny, as he really did look like someone had decided to cause a gap in the timeline to put a little Leo here in Bunker Nine instead of her friend. He had the same skin color, elfish ears, and nimble fingers. The only things missing were Leo's cheerful, joke-telling personality, easy smile, and nervous energy. This kid sat so still and blankly you'd think he was a statue.

Now, to try and get this kid to follow her, or leave and bring the others here? A question for the ages.

Piper couldn't just grab the kid, because who knew if he would scream or something? Based on his previous actions, he probably wouldn't, but she'd rather not take the chance. She didn't want to leave, just in case he decided to run off somewhere, because even if he wasn't Leo he was a little boy, and if he did turn out to be, she didn't want to be responsible for him getting hurt or lost again. So she was stuck.

The option of asking him to come with her didn't hit Piper until a few minutes later, and she almost started cussing herself out. Then again, she hadn't woken up too long ago, so her brain was slow. She did, however, smack a palm to her face, muttering something about needing coffee as soon as possible.

"Hey, buddy." She refrained from calling him Leo- who knew if he actually was or not? "Are you hungry or anything? We can go get some food, and we can meet my friends if you want."

Piper tried not to put too much charm speak into her words- kids had always seemed to know when she was using it on them. Considering that it didn't work on Leo's youngest brother Harley, who was nearly ten now, she was fairly sure that he'd be in the same range.

To her surprise, the little brunet simply nodded and slid off of the table, still looking up at her with the same dead expression. Something about it gave her chills, but at the same time, she felt like she'd seen it before. Piper still couldn't wrap her head around the fact that the nameless boy looked so much like Leo. But it couldn't be him, Leo was sixteen.

Then again, with the Gods and the capabilities of the Mist, she shouldn't be surprised.

Maybe it was some sort of prank, maybe it wasn't. But Piper wasn't going to let this kid out of her sight, just in case.

The door to Bunker Nine closed with a soft thud behind them, and the boy looked back. His eyes flicked over it as if he were evaluating something or watching someone intently. Then he shivered and moved a little closer to Piper, trying to keep her pace. She slowed some, glancing over her shoulder at the shelf of rock that was fading into morning mist as they walked farther down the path.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes: This took longer than excepted to do. Sorry 'bout that, but here you go. I wanted to read BOO before I did too much with this story, and now that I have hopefully things will go along better.**

**WARNING: SLIGHT BOO SPOILERS IN THIS CHAPTER. There may be more later on, but I don't know how big, or how many.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not fifty, nor a male, so obviously I don't own PJO.**

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><p>The pavilion was empty when Piper got there.<p>

It was just as well; she was stared at too much for her liking without having a kid with her. She circled around their designated meeting place, figuring that the others would come along soon enough, having given up on their search for the missing mechanic.

Speaking of which, little Leo (as she'd decided to call him in her head) surveyed the area quietly. Then, to her surprise, he walked towards the Hephaestus table, clutching the edge of the table to haul himself onto the bench.

"Hey!" She yelped, running to the other side of the pavilion. "Don't run off like that, Leo!" The name slipped form her lips naturally, before she could catch herself. Piper held her breath, afraid she'd just done something to this kid, somehow.

But he only narrowed his eyes at her, responding with just a hint of the sarcasm that she usually heard in Leo's voice. "It's not like you care anyways!"

Well, that answered _that_ question well enough.

She opened her mouth angrily, ready to retort, when footsteps sounded on the marble behind her. A group of shadows gathered on the stone and table, and she knew who was there before she even turned around.

Jason slung an arm over her shoulder as he came to a stop, causing a smile to flit across Piper's face. "Hey, Pipes. How'd-" His greeting caught in his throat when he saw who was in front of them. "... That Leo?"

"Uh huh." She crossed her arms over her chest and readjusted her stance.

"You sure?"

"Uh huh."

They set their gazes on Leo, who looked back at them almost coldly. The others caught up, coming to going the group staring down at the eight year old. It was quiet for a few minutes, and Piper assumed that the rest of her friends were processing what they were seeing.

Percy broke the silence momentarily. "Is that-?"

Annabeth nodded. "Yep."

The quiet resumed.

After a while, Leo seemed to get increasingly more irritated that they were simply standing there without doing anything other than looking at him. One of the fires in the braziers popped, causing Piper to jump. She thought for a moment that it'd picked up on Leo's mood and reacted accordingly (could Leo even control other fires?), but if anything it unsettled him. The boy cringed and adverted his eyes, shivering in the warm summer air.

"Where's the fire?" His voice was soft and it filled the pavilion eerily.

Annabeth tapped the closest brazier gently, removing her fingers before they were burned. "Every one of these has a fire in it."

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because Piper saw him go on guard. His shoulder's bunched up animalistically, like she'd seen Lycaon's wolves do, but more defensive.

Annabeth kept talking. "They're called braziers. We usually burn food in them at mealtimes, but the fires burn all day long."

"They're made out of what, some sort of bronze?" Leo eyed the brazier warily, tapping his foot against the side of the table.

"Celestial," Piper put in. "Most of the metal stuff around here is made from it."

"Never hear of it," he muttered. "You import it or somethin'?"

"You could say that."

Piper noted that the conversation seemed to settle his nerves some. It was the first conversation that he'd contributed to since she'd found him (not that she hadn't tried to get him to do otherwise), but his behavior still made her uneasy. Whenever Piper had imagined him as a younger kid, she'd always thought of him bouncing around and being energetic- basically the same as he was at age sixteen, just smaller and more innocent. But this Leo blew that image right out of the water.

Piper let the others entertain Leo for the time being. She had her own thoughts to collect. Still, they ended up sitting around the Hephaestus table, talking and joking around like normal. Well, Leo was obviously still eight, and he was definitely more recluse than Piper would have liked. He still looked tired and worn out, but not in the way that a little kid got after a long, hard day of playing. Not in the way a demigod looked when they finally collapsed onto their bed after a day full of training.

It was in a way that someone who had seen the scummy side of the world would look. Someone who fought long and hard, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Someone who had fought a battle that was too great for them, and hadn't necessarily won. Among all the things that she could see in Leo, there was just a hint of what she'd seen in her Dad after they rescued him from Enceladus, something that glimmered under the surface with a dangerous and crazed tint.

It chilled Piper to the bone.

Leo wasn't cracking jokes when she came out of her thought bubble, but he didn't look quiet as angry as before. Granted, he still looked genuinely irritated, but Piper would take that over seeing her friend as a blank slate any day.

Still, she smiled when he whacked Percy's hand away from his head; the younger had always hated when he ruffled his hair. Percy did it anyways, and Leo grew to tolerate it, because, let's face it, Leo was the little brother figure of the group, just like Hazel was seen as the little sister. Nico di Angelo was younger than him, sure, but he wasn't around much to begin with, and now he spent a lot of time with Will Solace. Piper tried not to think of what they could be doing, because then she'd start talking about how cute of a couple they were and basically 'showing her Aphrodite'.

And heaven knew she liked to keep that part of herself under wraps.

How she wished that Hazel were here now. Or Reyna, or even Frank. It hadn't been long since they'd left for Camp Jupiter, but Piper already missed them.

She wasn't sure how Leo got to be eight, or how they were going to get him back to being sixteen (they'd better because Piper was going to miss his stupid jokes, and this Leo _worried_ her- not to mention how Calypso would feel once she got back), or what they were going to do until then. She didn't even know if any of them were good with kids, or if they'd get Leo to go to bed when he was supposed to or eat his vegetables when she told him to. But she'd sure as hell try.


End file.
